Backing up files with a USB Extrenal hard drive
 

I wasn't sure which forum to put this in, but I figured I would place it here since it has to do with redhat 9.0

I am running a file server here at work with Redhat 9.0 on it.
I want to use an USB external drive to backup files and use it as a portable backup.

Unfortunately I have been googling all day, and I only founf one mention to using redhat 9.0 with a USB hard drive and it did not sound good.

Has anyone done this with 9.0 and did it work well?

If so, what procedure did you use to format the external drive and mount it?

Thank you

Assuming the disk's enclosure is supported, it will show up as a SCSI device (/dev/sdX). You partition/mkfs/mount it just like any other drive.

Thank you for the response! :)

When you say the disk's enclosure is supported, what do you mean?

I mean the chipset inside the external drive casing that communicates from and to the host computer.

to elaborate -- When you plug the disk into the server, tail off /var/log/messages and see if it picks it up (you should see messages regarding USB mass storage and all that). This will also tell you what device the system uses to represent the disk.

Thanks, I will try that. I deciding whether to use a Western or Segate. I found an this article:
Seagate 200GB External Drive Review

They used the segate 200 Gig drive and worked fine, but it was tested with 3 other distributions and not redhat 9.0.
Which has me concerned. I didn't want to go out buy a drive for the company if it doesn't work right.

What are your thoughts?

I don't know what any of the distros in the article use for a kernel (Or what RH9 uses for that matter), but if they're the same it should work. There's a good chance if they're even the same branch (2.4.x or whatever). I have a Maxtor external, a WD external, and a 2.5" external and Linux/BSD see all of them, though Linux goes down in flames bigtime if I hook the WD to a USB1.1 and actually try to use it.

You should be fine, but a return policy check might be in order.

Thanks again for the input!! :D

One last question: How can I tell if my USB is 1.1 or 2.0?
I am looking at the spec sheet of the server I am using, and it says 2 USB ports, it says nothing about version?

If it's 2.0 it should have a little + above the logo (yes, that's the only way to tell from the outside). The other way you can tell is through dmesg | grep USB. If you see lines like
You have 1.1. If on the other hand you see:
You have 2.0 :)

Yep, that did the trick! Thank you so much for the help. :cool:

This is the place to be....

I was disappointed to see the options for backup where Linux is concerned, I had to do a lot of websurfing just to find a couple of tape drives that supported Linux, but they were way out of our price range, so the external drive seemed like the next best option. Even with that, there doesn't seem to be an over whelming amout of info out there about Linux with USB drives...

Tape is pricey, but you can drop a tape off a desk and it'll still work. Just keep in mind that hard drives are not very "shock tolerant" and external != portable.

There's a reason people backup HDDs to tape -- "mag rot" aside, tapes are tough ;)

LOL... :D Point well taken!!!

Thank you for all your help.

I'm having much trouble getting USB mass storage to work reliably. Didn't investigate, though.

Suffice to say that if I need to copy significant amounts of data to my USB harddisk (an X-Drive), I connect it to my XP box and mount a samba share.

Groetjes,

Kees-Jan

Ick! :P

I know what you mean though. I have some Dell PE2650s that RHEL3 doesn't care for the USB controllers in *at all*. My solution was the same. Jacked into my laptop (which had GigE in it too, so it was fine speedwise) :)

Where can I find a list of compatible USB hard drive enclosures??

As mentioned, the info regarding backups and USB harddrive enclosures is slim. So, your help is appreciated! I'm running RedHat 9.